Hero Xtreme 160R 4V long-term honest review: What’s good, what’s not
In a statement released by HRC, the two parties have mutually decided to terminate their four-year contract prematurely at the end of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship season. Marquez was supposed to be with the Repsol Honda Team for another year but after the recent issues, the two seem to have parted ways. Marquez has won 59 races and got on the podium 101 times with the Japanese automaker. However, the last time Marquez won a race was all the way back in October of 2021 at the Emilia Romagna GP. The fire in the belly of Marquez was seen at the recent Japanese GP where a wet race saw him finish P3. While the race was red-flagged after half distance, Marquez had been very quick and overtook a few bikes to get himself on the podium. This was his first race podium in over a year.
Marc Marquez on the podium at the 2023 Japanese GP
Marquez started his journey with the Repsol Honda team in MotoGP in 2013. The young Spaniard had come to fill in the spot left by Casey Stoner. Not only did he win a MotoGP race in his rookie season, he even won the championship. To this day, Marquez remains the youngest rider to win a MotoGP race. He was 20 years and 63 days old when he won his first race at the Circuit of the Americas.
Marc Marquez has won six World Championship titles until now and all of them were with HRC. However, in recent years, Honda has not been able to deliver a competitive bike for the Spanish rider to be at the front of the field. Marquez clearly has the desire to win more, however, those desires do not seem to be coming to fruition with Honda anytime soon. In general, the Japanese manufacturers (Honda and Yamaha) have fallen behind the European teams in MotoGP. Not only is the RC213V not as fast as the Ducatis, but it has also been highly unstable. It has become a common sight to see Honda riders crash out before the end of the race.
There is no official word on who will replace Marc Marquez and pair up with Joan Mir for the upcoming season. Johann Zarco recently signed with the LCR Honda team to replace Alex Rins who will be heading to the factory Yamaha team next season. As for Marquez, there are strong rumours that he might be seen with the Gresini Ducati team and replace Fabio DiGinannantonio. Fans have been waiting to see what the eight-time world champion can achieve on a dominant machine like the new-era Ducati.